With all the jingoism over Kinder Morgan鈥檚 pipeline expansion creating jobs鈥攁nd almost all of it temporary work鈥攊t鈥檚 conspicuous how there鈥檚 no mention of creating actual long-term employment by processing聽enough of our own crude to, at the very least, supply the聽expensive gas-consumption requirements of Canadians,聽instead of exporting the bulk raw resource then importing the finished product.聽(And a similar question could be asked in regards to our raw-log softwood exports abroad.)
After thirty years of consuming mainstream news media, I鈥檝e yet to come across a seriously thorough discussion on why our national and provincial governments consistently refuse to alter this practice, which undoubtedly is the most profitable for the Texas-based oil company. And I鈥檓 not talking about open and closed on the same sole day, with the topic discussion parameters constrained to the point the outcome seemed predetermined.
If the Americans can extract and process their own oil鈥攁s well as our crude and logs鈥攖hen we should be equally as patriotic thus Canada First, even if it means paying slightly higher for Canadian wages than those in the U.S.
Frank Sterle Jr
White Rock, B.C.
